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Data's Day
' |image= |series= |production=40274-185 |producer(s)= |story=Harold Apter |script=Harold Apter and Ronald D. Moore |director=Robert Wiemer |imdbref=tt0708697 |guests=Rosalind Chao as Keiko O'Brien, Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien, Sierra Pecheur as T'Pel/Selok, Alan Scarfe as Mendak, Shelly Desai as V'Sal, April Grace as Transporter Technician |previous_production=The Loss |next_production=The Wounded |episode=TNG D11 |airdate=7 January 1991 |previous_release=The Loss |next_release=The Wounded |story_date(s)=Stardate 44390.1 |previous_story=The Loss |next_story=The Wounded }} =Summary= While commanding the night shift aboard the Enterprise, Data composes a letter to Commander Bruce Maddox detailing a normal day in his life with a focus on friendship. Data mentions his involvement in the impending wedding of Transporter Chief Miles O'Brien and civilian botanist Keiko Ishikawa where he had been asked to give the bride away. However, when visiting with Keiko she announces that she has decided to call it off, telling Data in frustration that it will make her happier. Data then delivers this news to Chief O'Brien, believing that since O'Brien wants to make Keiko happy, he will be pleased, which he is not. Geordi assures Data that the wedding will proceed as planned. Data discusses the Enterprise's mission involving a Vulcan ambassador, T'Pel, who has arranged a secret meeting with a Romulan ship. Data is assigned as her escort while she is on board. T'Pel asks Data about the Enterprise's defense capabilities, which Data finds suspicious, but after Data informs her that he has the same safeguards as the ship's computer regarding reporting such requests to Captain Picard, she drops the question, stating that she was interested only in testing Data's safeguards. Because Vulcans do not lie, Data decides not to pursue the issue. Data then asks Dr. Crusher to teach him how to dance, having discovered from her service record that she won dance competitions. She agrees to instruct him on the condition that he not share this information with the rest of the crew, for fear of again being called 'The Dancing Doctor'. Chief O'Brien asks Data to persuade Keiko to go through with the wedding. He fails yet again, and talks to Counselor Troi to try to understand Keiko's decision. In the holodeck, Data almost instantly learns how to tap dance from Dr. Crusher before telling her that he is ready to dance at the wedding. Telling him that tap dancing is inappropriate for social dancing she attempts to instruct him in ballroom dancing, but Data finds it much more difficult, as he cannot watch Dr. Crusher's feet. Dr. Crusher is then called away to sickbay to deliver a baby, and Data is left alone with a holographic partner. The Enterprise rendezvous with a Romulan warbird and, despite Picard's unease about the situation, T'Pel transports aboard. However, something interrupts the transporter signal and the ambassador is killed. Finding no flaw in the transporter system, Data uses the principles of Sherlock Holmes to come to the conclusion that T'Pel was not really killed: The Romulans beamed her off the ship themselves and left behind genetic material designed to fool the crew into thinking that she died in a transporter accident. Picard speeds back to intercept the Romulans in the middle of the neutral zone. He confronts the Romulan Admiral Mendak and learns that T'Pel is actually a Romulan spy. Before shots are fired, another Romulan warbird appears next to the first one and three more enter the sector, minutes away. Picard is forced to retreat into Federation space. Data approaches Keiko to make amends. She informs him that she is not angry at him, and that the wedding will proceed as planned. Miles and Keiko are married by Captain Picard. Data notes that although there are many emotions that he does not understand and cannot share, he does understand the emotion of love and belonging. Later, in Sickbay, the captain and Data visit the newest member of the Enterprise crew—a baby born while the Enterprise was in mortal peril. =Errors and Explanations= Plot Oversights # Data walking into Sick Bay as Dr. Crusher is finishing Lieutenant Juarez's prenatal exam. Data is the soul of discrection. Internet Movie Database Character error # While officiating at a wedding ceremony, Captain Picard says, "Since the days of the first wooden vessels, all shipmasters have had one happy privilege: that of uniting two people in the bonds of matrimony." This is false; whatever Starfleet's own fictional regulations may be, the captains of seagoing ships have no particular power to perform weddings and, at least for the US, the UK, and the former USSR, there is no evidence that they ever did. In fact the navies of the US, the UK, and various other countries specifically prohibit a commanding officer from performing marriage ceremonies. The fact that under naval regulations, service captains are specifically prohibited from performing marriage ceremonies, doesn't stop civilian captains becoming ordained ministers. In any case, the founding of the World government may have led to a change in the law, to allow the highest ranking person present to conduct weddings, as shown by Admiral Ross conducting Ben Sisko's wedding to Kassidy Yates. Nit Central # Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Wednesday, July 25, 2001 - 4:26 am: Why didn't the Zhukov just take T'Pel to the Neutral Zone instead of transferring her to the Enterprise? The 'Ambassador' most likely insisted on travelling aboard the Enterprise, due to her status as Federation flagship. # Picard can't tell Data which sector of the Neutral Zone, but then he gives Riker a specific heading which takes them very close to the Neutral Zone. Don't you think Data should be able to figure which sector from this information? The heading may lead to the border between two sectors. # O'Brien speaking to Data, as a friend, asks Data to speak to Keiko, so why does O'Brien say, "Thank you, sir." Is this common for friends in military, or pseudo-military, occupations? Data is still O'Brien's superior. # If Data has studied texts on marriage, then why isn't he familiar with `cold feet?' The texts may not have included that concept. # John A. Lang on Friday, September 06, 2002 - 7:47 pm: In The Measure of a Man, Maddox wants to dismantle Data and study him. Later, Data formally refuses Maddox's procedure. SO...why is Data writing him? Hey, Data's an android...he doesn't (at least at this point) do resentment, anger, fear or any other emotion. So he's got no reason to shy away from Maddox once the immediate threat of disassembly has been removed. It seems reasonable and non-invasive to Data that Maddox would want to know about his day. It doesn't that he would want to take him apart. Simple as that. :) ' # ''Adam Bomb on Wednesday, October 02, 2002 - 7:17 am: The transporter base appears to have been changed during filming of this episode. In the earlier scenes (I think when T'Pel beams off) the pads have the trim around them that is seen in the later episodes of Next Gen, and all of Voyager. When we see the later scenes, with the Engineering crew doing diagnostics, the pads appear without the trim, as they did in the earlier episodes of Next Gen. It is obvious that this ep was shot out of sequence, too. '''The trim could have been removed to enable the engineers to perform the diagnostic. # Luigi_novi (Luigi_novi) on Saturday, January 25, 2014 - 6:49 pm: After the incident that seemingly kills Ambassador T'Pel, Data, investigating the matter, goes to sickbay to ask Crusher to examine the remains left on the transporter pad. Crusher agrees, saying that she is finishing up her report. Am I the only one who found the cheerful smile with which Crusher granted Data's request a bit out of place, given the morbid event in question? Don F (TNG Moderator) (Dferguson) on Friday, March 28, 2014 - 7:52 am: Its Crusher. She is a weird one. my wife and I have long suspected that she is secretly a Verdazine Addict. It might account for her many mood swings over the years. =Sources= Category:Episodes Category:The Next Generation